The
response to Joe McCarthy's war on Communism, and its tactics, famously
drew responses, comments and critiques from many corners of the
worlds of art, news and entertainment. What other aspect of life
in mid-50's America played such a strong role in the
work of such diverse performers as Bob and Ray, Pete Seeger and
Edward R. Murrow, among others far too numerous to mention? On the
fringes of this response were some less well-known chapters of the
story. Today's example is a 10" LP by The Barton Brothers, performing a
20 minute play written and directed by Hal Collins, titled "Mister
Chairman! A Point of Order", and released in 1955 on the Allo Records
label.

Such was the fear of McCarthy and his power, that the album - despite being released after public opinion and his
Senate colleagues had turned against McCarthy - carries text on the
back cover almost begging the listener to understand that it's contents
are SATIRE, and that SATIRE is really OKAY. Oh, it's also that rare,
special brand of SATIRE - "HUMOROUS SATIRE"! After going on to say
that their album contains a caricature (capitalizing that word, while spelling it wrong,
by the way) of the manner of presentation of a political investigation,
they even assure us that "any similarity to any persons, living or
dead, is purely coincidental.

I'd love to say that hiding behind this timid, apologetic marketing
lurks a great work of satiric, biting art, but...I don't actually
believe that to be the case. This is fairly hamfisted stuff, in which
McCarthy's doppelganger gets upset at being denied his favorite meal,
and then becomes suspicious of the red.... well, I'll let you hear it
and find out. Source: WFMU

*** Fair Use ***

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of the material. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information please visit law.cornell.edu. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission directly from the copyright owner.Copyright holders can request that any post be immediately deleted by contacting jimgweb@gmail.com.